Nicholas Kenyon 

Pergolesi: L’Olimpiade – review

There will no doubt be better Olympic-based dramas than Pergolesi's pleasant if tame affair, writes Nicholas Kenyon
  
  


As the Olympics approach, there will be plenty of revivals of Games-related dramas (Garsington promises a Vivaldi opera next year), and this big three-acter by Pergolesi –, best known for his small comic pieces – leads the field. Here, the winner of the Games is promised the daughter of the king, contradicting the course of true love, but once babies exchanged at birth have been sorted out, all ends well. The performance from Innsbruck is sparky, the music charming but scarcely compelling. I was beginning to lose interest in act two until a lovely aria popped up that Stravinsky arranged in Pulcinella.

 

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